Paul Dessau (19 December 1894 – 28 June 1979) was a German composer and conductor. He collaborated with Bertolt Brecht and composed incidental music for his plays, and several operas based on them.
Dessau was born in Hamburg into a musical family.[1] His grandfather, Moses Berend Dessau (1821–1881), was a cantor in the Hamburg synagogue.[2][1] His uncle, Bernhard Dessau [de], was Konzertmeister at the Staatskapelle Berlin;[3] his cousin, Max Winterfeld, became known under the name Jean Gilbert as a composer of operettas;[2] and his second cousin, Robert Gerson Müller-Hartmann, was a composer and collaborator with Ralph Vaughan Williams.[4]
From 1909, Dessau studied with Florian Zajic at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin, majoring in violin.[1] In 1912 he became répétiteur at the Stadttheater Hamburg, the municipal theatre.[5] He studied the work of the conductors Felix Weingartner and Arthur Nikisch and took classes in composition from Max Julius Loewengard [de]. He was second Kapellmeister at the Tivoli Theatre in Bremen in 1914 before being drafted for military service in 1915 .[2]
In 1933 Dessau emigrated to France, and 1939 moved further to the United States,[1] where initially he lived in New York City before moving to Hollywood in 1943.[2] Dessau returned to Germany with his second wife, the writer Elisabeth Hauptmann, and settled in East Berlin in 1948.[5]
Starting in 1952, he taught at the Staatliche Schauspielschule (State drama school) in Berlin-Oberschöneweide where he was appointed professor in 1959. He became a member of the GDR Akademie der Künste in 1952 and was vice-president of this institution between 1957 and 1962.[6] He taught many master classes, his students including Friedrich Goldmann, Reiner Bredemeyer, Jörg Herchet, Hans-Karsten Raecke [de], Friedrich Schenker, Luca Lombardi and Karl Ottomar Treibmann.[citation needed]
Dessau was married four times: Gudrun Kabisch (1924), with whom he had two children, Elisabeth Hauptmann (1948), Antje Ruge [de] (1952), and choreographer and director Ruth Berghaus (1954), with whom he had a son, Maxim Dessau (born 1954) who became a film director.[7]
Dessau died on 28 June 1979 at the age of 84, in Königs Wusterhausen, on the outskirts of Berlin.[1]
Alice the Fire Fighter(Alice und ihre Feuerwehr) (21.8.1928), Alice's Monkey Business(Alice und die Flöhe) (25.9.1928), Alice in the Wooly West(Alice und die Wildwest-Banditen) (18.10.1928) and Alice Helps the Romance(Alice und der Selbstmörder) (31.1.1929) by Walt Disney
L'Horloge Magique. 2. La Forêt enchanté(Der verzauberte Wald) (7 September 1928) and L'Horloge Magique. 1. L'Horloge Magique(Die Wunderuhr) (12 November 1928) by Ladislas Starevich
Doktor Doolittle und seine Tiere (15 December 1928) by Lotte Reiniger with arrangements of music by Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith and a private composition
^Clements, Andrew (12 January 2023). "Dessau: Lanzelot review – gleefully eclectic attack on Soviet totalitarianism". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
Further reading and documentaryedit
Dessau, Paul. Notizen zu Noten, ed. Fritz Henneberg (Reclam, Leipzig 1974).
Dessau, Paul. Aus Gesprächen (VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1974).
Henneberg, Fritz. Dessau – Brecht. Musikalische Arbeiten. (Henschel, Berlin 1963).
Hennenberg, Fritz. Paul Dessau. Eine Biographie. (VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1965).
Lucchesi, Joachim (ed.). Das Verhör in der Oper: Die Debatte um die Aufführung "Das Verhör des Lukullus" von Bertolt Brecht und Paul Dessau (BasisDruck, Berlin 1993).
Paul Dessau - Let´s Hope For The Best - film documentary (Yellow Table Media/NDR/ARTE, Leipzig 2023)
External linksedit
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